Peace of Mind with Mutoh Original Inks
The ink produced for any printer is manufactured as part of a complete system and is an important part, if not the most important part, of the performance of your printer, the quality of its output and last but not least the target applications.
Compatible inks and ink cassettes for almost any major printer brand have been available for a considerable time now. While in the early days of compatible inks, the quality was questionable, some have come a long way in more recent years in terms of quality and environmental considerations. So why use original manufacturer inks when compatible ink is cheaper?
Ink is a crucial part of the printing process and no more so when discussing wide format printing. Not only are you using large quantities of valuable media, but you are also striving to deliver the best possible and consistent quality output to your customer. Quality on a scale that imperfections and compromises show. So why compromise and what are the advantages of original manufacturer ink?
Development & Testing
Using inks that work together faultlessly with the print head and media in production to give you optimum performance and output quality is an area that any printer manufacturer invests heavily in, and Mutoh is no exception in this respect. We are constantly testing the inks and print head technologies in our own chemical labs to ensure that you are provided with inks that perfectly match your Mutoh system and supplies.
Testing ink durability is a critical part of the test procedure. Mutoh test all their inks in-house and follow a strict programme to ensure optimum performance in terms of:
Abrasion resistance
Evaluating how the ink reacts to external factors such as: erosion, wind, sand, friction, “wear and tear”, …Chemical resistance (colour transfer)
Evaluating the resistance of the ink to abrasion and the influence of different chemical substances.Outdoor durability
Evaluate the resistance of the ink to the effects of humidity and UV.
These tests provide a good indication of the durability of our ink. But there are, of course, other factors which influence the longevity of output depending on environment and depending on the application.
Colour and Quality Consistency
One of the major disadvantages of compatible inks is the batch-to-batch variations. If you are printing a long run or repeat runs which involve the use of large quantities of expensive media, the last thing you want to find are colour variations. Quality control between batches is often a problem with compatible inks and any savings on ink costs are often diminished because of this. By conducting stringent quality control and performing live print tests with every ink batch, Mutoh are able to guarantee batch-to-batch consistency, a perfect match between ink and print head and unequivocal warranties for durability and quality.
Technical Issues
Original ink cassettes and packs are chipped to match the printer(s) in which they are to be used. There are several reasons for this, but some important ones are:
Ink is used as efficiently as possible. By using a complete solution, original manufacturer ink, printer and software you have more control over how the printer uses the ink (ink flow) because the two are designed to work together. This combination gives you efficiencies of ink usage you may not see with compatible inks.
Compromising the print head. The print head is the heart of the printer and like any heart, needs to be treated with care. Original manufacturer inks care for the heart of the printer because the chemical composition has been designed to do so. This is not the case with compatible inks and one of the major issues with compatibles is the ink drying too quickly and intermediate ink batches suffer from poor filtration or poor stability, clogging the print head (especially if the printer isn’t in full-time use). Original manufacturer inks contain an ingredient mix maximising the stability to prevent ink clogging. Look after your heart!
Cassettes / packs that don’t fit. Again, manufacturing quality control of compatible inks in cassettes doesn’t ensure that the cassettes will always fit. One to be aware of.
Warranty issues. It’s often the case that the use of compatible inks within the warranty period of the printer will render the warranty invalid. This could prove to be very expensive if the printer develops a fault associated with the use of compatible inks.
Conclusion
There is no argument that the combination of original ink with your printer will always out-perform compatible inks, they work better together because they’ve been designed to do so. You can tell your customers this and make your business stand out. For top quality, consistent output and returning customers, look no further!